"The Order's chief centres were its 'chapters' at Foix (established in 1760),... Paris... other French cities, and those on Santo Domingo... After the death of Martinez de Pasqually the Order declined and in 1781 was allowed to lapse by the Order's then Grand Master... Jean-Baptiste Willermoz tried to perpetuate Martinist teaching in the secret degree of the Order of the Holy City, founded at Lyons in 1778. Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin is said to have established a small personal school in 1779. The Martinist Order which the French occultist Papus took over in the 1890s lacked any genuine initiatory connections with the original Order. "

"Table: Some surviving new religious orgs. in Japan "; "Membership figures, voluntarily reported..., as found in the 1979 ed. of the Shukyo Nenkan (Religions Yearbook). " Classified as Shinto new religion (year of origin: 1873).

Crim, Keith (ed.). The Perennial Dictionary of World Religions. San Francisco: Harper Collins (1989). Reprint; originally pub. as Abingdon Dictionary of Living Religions, 1981; pg. 179.

"The close alliance of the Christian churches with colonial regimes has given way to two predominant types of post-independence patterns, both of which disestablish the churches from their hegemonic positions. These are the promotion of religious pluralism...; and the replacement of Christianity by a quasi-religious ideology such as 'Mobutism' (for President Mobutu) in Zaire, or Marxism in a growing number of nations such as Guinea, Congo, Benin, Angola, Mozambique, and Ethiopia. "

"There are, however, secular ideologies and institutions which adopt rituals, vaunt transcendent explanations, make moral claims, focus loyalties, mobilize identities and create quasi-priesthoods. Some are billed as alternatives or successors to religion. Marxism and Nazism have been incandescent recent cases, now burnt out. Both were presented by their adherents as 'scientific' prescriptions which made religion dispensible. yet both were quasi-religions which borrowed heavily from religious tradition... They were united against religion and united in imitation of it. They placed God with history but both saw the course of the world as charted by an impersonal, dynamic force, of which indivudual lives are the plaything. They offered human sacrifices to history, speeding her purposes by immolating profane races and classes. They adopted the framework and imagery of Christian millenarianism, prmising the fulfilment of history in a 'classless society' or a 'thousand-year Reich'... "

"Marxism and Nazism were crude, looking-glass images of religion. Real religion has seen both off. but we still live in societies with worldly priorities, daunting anxieties, susceptibility to charisma and hunger for 'final solutions.' Some secular ideologies already seem to be practising in front of the mirror... "

Marxism

world

-

-

-

-

1999

Gallagher, Winifred. Working on God. New York: Random House (1999); pg. xxiv.

"If religion--the record of our struggle to understand why we exist and what we sould therefore do--has tragic flaws, so do the modern secular 'faiths' of Marx and Freud that not long ago seemed destined to replace it. "

"Marxism: The economic and social doctrine propounded by Karl Marx (1818-83). Attempts have been made to see Marx's passionate concern with social justice as the heritage of the Hebrew prophets. Others have seen Mar's dialectic as derived not only form the philosopher Hegle but from the Talmudic reasoning of Marx's forbears--he was descended from Rabbinical families on both the paternal and the maternal side. These theories are purely speculative, however, and do not affect the question of the attitude taken towards Marxism by religious Jews. "

"Marxism: ...Marx was born a Jew but when the boy was only 6 years of age his father embraced Christianity. As soon as he grew to manhood, Marx declared himself an atheist. Marx's thought on religion is utterly at variance with theism. Marxism, as developed by Marx himself, by his collaborator Engels, by Lenin, and in the Communist philosophy, treats belief in God as positively harmful. Marxism declares that men adhere to theistic religion not because it is true but because it serves as a tool for the preservation of the economic and social status quo. This is particularly so since in the theistic faiths men's final bliss is not in this world at all but is reserved for him in the Hereafter. "

Ross, Dan. Acts of Faith: A Journey to the Fringes of Jewish Identity. New York: St. Martin's Press (1982); pg. 77.

"In Bombay and Calcutta, refugees reinforced the small Mashhadi colony founded by Ibrahim Nathan. They were closely associated with India's prosperous Arab Jews, called 'Baghdadis'. These Baghdadis ran commercial empires stretching from London to China. Ibrahim Nathan's oldest son, in fact, had to miss his father's funeral in 1868 because he was working for a Baghdadi firm in Shanghai. "

Mashhadi Jews

Iran: Mashhad

2,000

-

-

-

1946

Ross, Dan. Acts of Faith: A Journey to the Fringes of Jewish Identity. New York: St. Martin's Press (1982); pg. 78-79.

"1946... That was the last straw for Mashhad's Jews. More than a century after they had been forced to become Jadidis they gave up on that city. Over the next few years, more than two thousand left, mostly going to Teheran and Tel Aviv. No more than a dozen families were left by the mid-1950s... "

Mashhadi Jews

Iran: Mashhad

50

-

-

-

1955

Ross, Dan. Acts of Faith: A Journey to the Fringes of Jewish Identity. New York: St. Martin's Press (1982); pg. 78-79.

"1946... That was the last straw for Mashhad's Jews. More than a century after they had been forced to become Jadidis they gave up on that city. Over the next few years, more than two thousand left, mostly going to Teheran and Tel Aviv. No more than a dozen families were left by the mid-1950s... "

Mashhadi Jews

Iran: Mashhad

25

-

-

-

1975

Ross, Dan. Acts of Faith: A Journey to the Fringes of Jewish Identity. New York: St. Martin's Press (1982); pg. 78-79.

"That was the last straw for Mashhad's Jews... Over the next few years, more than two thousand left, mostly going to Teheran and Tel Aviv. No more than a dozen families were left by the mid-1950s; by the 1970s perhaps half that many remained, none of whom still lived in the old Jewish quarter. "

Mashhadi Jews

Iran: Tehran

3,000

-

6units

-

1979

Ross, Dan. Acts of Faith: A Journey to the Fringes of Jewish Identity. New York: St. Martin's Press (1982); pg. 79.

"Teheran became the new mecca for Mashhadis, until the shah was overthrown in 1979... Some two to three thousand Mashhadis lived in Teheran before the revolution. They supported six synagogues of their own: a grand synagogue in a wealthy suburb and smaller ones in older neighborhoods in the city. "

Mashhadi Jews

Israel

6,000

-

-

-

1982

Ross, Dan. Acts of Faith: A Journey to the Fringes of Jewish Identity. New York: St. Martin's Press (1982); pg. 80.

"About half of all Mashhadis now live in Israel, some five to six thousand. "

Mashhadi Jews

Israel

-

-

8units

-

1982

Ross, Dan. Acts of Faith: A Journey to the Fringes of Jewish Identity. New York: St. Martin's Press (1982); pg. 80.

"Most Israeli Mashhadis live in or near Tel Aviv... In addition to the two old synagogues in Jerusalem, they now have four in Tel Aviv and one each in the nearby cities of Herzliya and B'nei Brak. "

Mashhadi Jews

Israel: Jerusalem

-

-

2units

-

1982

Ross, Dan. Acts of Faith: A Journey to the Fringes of Jewish Identity. New York: St. Martin's Press (1982); pg. 76.

"One of their communities was founded for not economic, but religios reasons: Jerusalem's... They built two synagogues in the Bukharan Quarter which are still in use today, and their own cemetary on the Mount of Olives. "

Mashhadi Jews

Israel: Jerusalem

-

-

2units

-

1982

Ross, Dan. Acts of Faith: A Journey to the Fringes of Jewish Identity. New York: St. Martin's Press (1982); pg. 80.

"Most Israeli Mashhadis live in or near Tel Aviv... In addition to the two old synagogues in Jerusalem, they now have four in Tel Aviv and one each in the nearby cities of Herzliya and B'nei Brak. "

Mashhadi Jews

Israel: Tel Aviv

-

-

4units

-

1982

Ross, Dan. Acts of Faith: A Journey to the Fringes of Jewish Identity. New York: St. Martin's Press (1982); pg. 80.

"Most Israeli Mashhadis live in or near Tel Aviv... In addition to the two old synagogues in Jerusalem, they now have four in Tel Aviv and one each in the nearby cities of Herzliya and B'nei Brak. "

Mashhadi Jews

New York: New York City

-

-

1unit

-

1982

Ross, Dan. Acts of Faith: A Journey to the Fringes of Jewish Identity. New York: St. Martin's Press (1982); pg. 80.

"New York has succeeded Teheran as their most prosperous community. Very few New Yorkers are aware that ex-Marranos [secret Jews] live among them... Few know they are renting the basement of a Kew Gardens synagogue for a house of worship, or raising funds to build one of their own. "

Mashhadi Jews

Spain

-

-

-

-

1982

Ross, Dan. Acts of Faith: A Journey to the Fringes of Jewish Identity. New York: St. Martin's Press (1982); pg. 80.

"Milan's {Mashhadi] community is the youngest and, along with New York's, the fastest growing. The Mashhadis who began moving to Italy in the 1960s all settled in Milan. Why Milan and not, say, Rome? 'There is no one in Rome,' a 'Milani' answered. 'Why should I go there?' "

Mashhadi Jews

United Kingdom: London

100

-

1unit

-

1935

Ross, Dan. Acts of Faith: A Journey to the Fringes of Jewish Identity. New York: St. Martin's Press (1982); pg. 77.

"In London, Mashhadis founded one of their richest and most influential communities. There, too, they had their own synagogue and kept to themselves. Although more than a hundred lived in London by the 1930s, hardly any other London Jews knew they were there. Today it is an aging community; most of the younger Mashhadis left for New York after World War II. "

Mashhadi Jews

world

10,000

-

-

-

1982

Ross, Dan. Acts of Faith: A Journey to the Fringes of Jewish Identity. New York: St. Martin's Press (1982); pg. 68.

"Only a andful of Jews live in Mashhad today, but some ten thousand Mashhadis keep its memory alive around the world. These Mashhadis may be the most clannish Jews in the world. Though geographically dispersed they are a single community... They almost never marry outside their community, even nonMashhadi Jews... As of this writing, their largest communities are in Tel Aviv, New York, Teheran, Milan, Jerusalem, London, and Hamburg. " [Jews forced to convert outwardly to Islam in 1839 in Iran.]

Mashhadi Jews

world

12,000

-

-

-

1982

Ross, Dan. Acts of Faith: A Journey to the Fringes of Jewish Identity. New York: St. Martin's Press (1982); pg. 80.

"About half of all Mashhadis now live in Israel, some five to six thousand. "

Mashhadi Jews

world

-

-

-

-

1982

Ross, Dan. Acts of Faith: A Journey to the Fringes of Jewish Identity. New York: St. Martin's Press (1982); pg. 80.

After the 1979 revolution: "Along with other businessmen in Teheran, many Mashhadis were wiped out. Those who could left. The new refugees joined other Mashhadis in Tel Aviv, Hamburg, Milan, and New York. Others are still exploring new markets in places like Tokyo, Miami, and Durban, South Africa. "

"Over the past half year or so, Chinese authorities have shut down several cults, arresting their leaders. One group, the Master God Sect, had by official count 10,000 members spread over 22 provinces. Its leader was sentenced to death in June. "

"Matsigenka: Location: Peru; Language: Matsigenka, a dialect of Arawak; Spanish; Religion: Traditional native beliefs "; "The Matsigenka live in southeastern Peru... "; "Religion: Good and evil were the two forces involved in the creation of the world. The Creator made the world by mounding up mud into land. The Evil Contender created the bad things in the world, like stinging flies... "

"Two prominent prophets arose in the 1930s claiming to have inherited the mantle of Kimbangu. They were Andrew Matswa, who was active in the (then French) Congo, and Simon Mpadi. Matswa served in the French army in Morocco and later lived in Paris where he moved in left-wing circles. There he was successful in getting a government subsidy for a welfare organization to help Africans in Paris, and through this association, Matswa sent agents to collect funds in the Boko district of French Equatorial Africa, although those who contributed had widely divergent ideas of the purpose of their donations. Matswa... was prosecuted and this was enough to make him a martyr, and his movement, variously known as 'the religion of the candle' and 'the religion of the sacred wood' flourished after his death after a few years of imprisonment. It remained a potent force in the French Congo, and the Matswaists were an important group in the period leading to independence in the late 1950s. "

"Kikuyu. The largest of the 48 tribes living in Kenya, the Kikuyu number some 1 1/2 million people. They came to the attention of the outside world in the 1950s because of their membership of the Mau Mau, a terrorist organization whose avowed aim was to drive the white man out of Kenya. The Mau Mau tactics consisted largely of ritual murders which... required the killer to cut off the victim's head and drink the liquid of his eyeballs. "

"Mauritius is a predominantly Hindu country, with evangelical Christians accounting for less than three percent of the population. Africa Evangelical Fellowship was invited to the island in 1969 and has planted churches in Rose-belle, Rose Hill, Flacq, Vacoas, Petit Paquet, and Blue Bay (an English-speaking church, mainly for expatriates), which are registered individually with the government. They are known as the Mauritian Evangelical Churches (MEC). "

"Other Left-Wing Activity. Although only fringe, fragmented organizations, several other left-wing extremist groups still exist:

...May 19th Communist Organization. An offshoot of the Weather Underground, the May 19th Communist Organization was responsible for a New Year's Eve bombing in 1982 that maimed three policemen. When members Susan Rosenberg and Tim Blunk were arrested in 1984, police found 780 pounds of explosives and some illegal guns. Rosenberg and Blunk clandestine political and military organizations and open up campaigns of armed propaganda against the U.S. military. "

"Rulers also biult tall limestone pyramids with small temples at top. There, priests performed religious ceremonies. Although Mayan glyphs have been deciphered, so much is still unknown about these people. It is known, however, that religion played a central part in their daily lives. Each day had special religious importance, and religious festivals took place throughout the year. To obtain the help of the gods, the Maya fasted, prayed, and offered animal and human sacrifices. They frequently offered their own blood to deities... "

"The Mayan culture arose, flourished, and vanished in less than a thousand years, reaching its peak between 250 A.D. and 900 A.D. The Maya lived in Central America and south Mexico, and their horizons reached to the Valley of Mexico in the west and to Panama in the east. Their civilization progressed without contact with European or Asian civilizations, although they were influenced by events within their geographic sphere. In spite of their relative isolation, the Maya produced a remarkable architecture and excelled in painting and sculpture. "

"The height of Mayan civilization, 250 A.D. - 900 A.D., is referred to as the Classical Period. It is during this time that th Maya developed their great cities. The largest cities included tens of thousands of inhabitants. Many smaller cities existed as well. These may have been independent or vassals to a larger city. Some towns, villages, even isolated farms have all been found. "

"For reasons still unknown, the Maya abandoned their cities about 900 A.D. They dispersed to the Yucatan and the highlands of Guatamala. In these areas, the Maya continued to prosper until Spain conquered them in the mid 1500s. "

"government census figures identify 43% of the population as ethnically Maya. " [This refers to ethnic status, not formal self-identified religious affiliation, although Mayan custom and spirituality are found in contemporary Mayan life regardless of declared religion.]

"Maya. American Indians speaking dialects of the Maya languages form the greater part of the Mexican states of Yucatan and Chiapas. They are also an important part of British Honduras, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.... There is some mystery about them because so little is known about their existence before the early centuries of the Christian era, when they first began to erect stone buildings. "

"The first phase of high culture broke up suddenly and catastrophically around 900 AD. Archeologists are seeking a reason but not enough is known; maybe there was a terrible civil war... Maya culture in the highlands did not recover. Meanwhile smaller Maya towns in the... Yucatan survived, and in the late 10th century, when underground streams were fully exploited the Yucatec Maya achieved a new importance. "

"Nowadays the Maya survive in large numbers as citizens of Mexico, Guatemala, and other Central American countries. They still speak dialects of their ancient language, and are hard-working citizens who are all Catholic by religion, though traces of their ancient ceremonies survive. The ancient gods have become absorbed as kind-hearted saints in the modern world. "

"Maya: Location: Southeastern Mexico; Guatemala; Belize; Honduras; El Salvador; Population: About 8 - 10 million; Religion: 'Folk Catholicism'; evangelical Christianity "; "Today's Mayas are descended from one of the great civilizations of the Americas... "; Pg. 290: "When Spanish missionaries introduced Catholicism to their regions, the Maya tended to graft it onto their existing religion, creating a unqiue brand of 'folk Catholicism.' Their traditional gods that belonged to the natural world, such as corn, rain, & the sun, became associated with Christian saints, & various rituals & festivals were transmuted into forms approved by the church. Since the 1960s, evangelical Christianity, mostly promoted by churches in the southern United States, has been adopted by large segments of the Mayan population. Entire towns have embraced conservative forms of Protestantism,which have not proven as amenable as Catholcim to the retention of... traditional folk religions... "

"Over six million Maya Indians live today in southern Mexico, Yucatan, Guatemala, and Belize. They are the modern-day descendants of the ancient Maya. " [This refers to ethnic status, not formal self-identified religious affiliation, although Mayan custom and spirituality are found in contemporary Mayan life regardless of declared religion.]

"Videotape sales in 1997 stood at $9.3 billion and videotape rentals amounted to $11.2 billion.Between watching movies and videos and working and playing at computers, Americans spent much time of their time staring into screens. What they saw, of course, had a huge impact on their lives. Most Americans got their news primarily from television. Complains of bias were common and often well documented. Accounts of the bizarre, the tragic, the deadly, and the corrupt dominated the programs. At times, stories seemed to have lives of their own. Millions became emotionally involved in the death of England's jet-set Princess Diana, for example, due to accounts that lingered for more than a year. (Television journalists quickly forget saintly, Nobel Prize-winning Mother Theresa, who died five days earlier.) "

"Television dominated the lives of a great many Americans. Millions mourned the end of the popular 'Seinfeld' television series. Millions watched daily 'soap operas' and talk shows that often vied with each other to present the most controversial programming. Among the most popular was talk show host Oprah Winfrey, and many accepted her recommendations about the rights and wrongs of life even to the point of what books to read... Sex and violence on television and in the movies concerned a majority of Americans, and with good reason. Before entering junior high school, a child would witness eight thousand on-screen murders on television and in such movies as Die Hard 2, which featured 264 killings. "

"Radio continued to attract millions daily. Right-wingers enjoyed Rush Limbaugh and Paul Harvey, and the left listened avidly to National Public Radio. All-news stations, such as WBBM in Chicago, had huge audiences. Enormously popular rock and country music stations drove out virtually all jazz and classical programming.

Despite the virtual disappearance of serious books from best-seller lists, and a steady decline in newspaper readers, the print media continued to make an impact, especially upon the educated. Giant publishers such as Random House and Penguin Putnam, and powerful newspapers such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and Los Angeles Times were often highly influential. "

"Increasingly the media were coming under the authority of fewer and fewer people, such as billionaires Ted Turner and Rupert Murdoch, and the heads of huge conglomerates (Disney owned and and operated both ABC and ESPN). The impact of this development was uncertain, but some critics were pessimistic about the long-term consequences to entertainment, to culture, to public morality, and even to democracy.

The media, more than any other institution at the close of the century, had the power to define truth, beauty, and virtue; to determine the very confines of reality. The authority of churches, schools, government, and often even the family paled in comparison. Media moguls and their employees were the high priests of the secular, consumer society. "

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